474 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



readers scarcely require to be told is but a synonym of S. 

 hassana, which certainly does not occur in those waters. The 

 " Wide-awakes " of Ascension he more prudently leaves undeter- 

 mined (pp. 424-426), though most ornithologists know that by 

 that nickname the British sailor commonly means (S/erwa/w/i^i- 

 nosa {cf. supra, p. 286). It can hardly be, too, that Mr. Colling- 

 wood '' saw, and heard sing, the Chaffinch {Fringilla coelebs)," 

 at Fayal, as he states (p. 430) ; no doubt the bird was F. moreleti 

 (Ibis, 1866, p. 97). Still, with all these slight blemishes, the 

 book is very interesting ; and if an ornithologist can venture to 

 cast the eye of aflFection on nudibranchiate Mollusca, flirt with 

 HolothuricE, dally with a Comatula, or submit to the embraces 

 of a chain of Salpa, without being false to his own wedded love, 

 he will greatly enjoy the author's pages. We entirely agree, as 

 indeed all naturalists must, with his concluding regrets as to the 

 common neglect of the wonderful advantages which fall to the 

 lot of so many of our naval officers, whether bearing Her Ma- 

 jesty's commission, or engaged in the mercantile marine. In 

 connexion with this last service, Mr. CoUingwood's labours are 

 well known ; and we only trust that, some day, they will be of 

 good effect. 



It would be out of place here to dwell at any length upon Mr. 

 Parker's recent work published by the Ray Society * ; the duty 

 of reviewing it belongs rather to the comparative anatomist. 

 Still, as the author must be regarded as one of the very highest 

 authorities on osteology in this country, and, with respect to the 

 class Aves, one of the very highest anywhere, we cannot fail to 

 record the appearance of a work than which none more meri- 

 torious ever left the press. Looking, as we do, upon the internal 

 structure and development of animals as the only sure base of 

 operations whence we can arrive at a final victory over the diffi- 

 culties of classification, Mr. Parker's unparalleled researches 

 deserve the attention of every systematic ornithologist. It is an 

 unquestionable fact that the originator of the theory that the 

 fore limbs of Vertebrates, by means of the " shoulder-girdle," 



* A Monograph on the Structure and Development of the Shoulder- 

 Girdle and Sternum in the Vertebrata. By W. Kitchen Parker, F.R.S., 

 F.Z.S. London : 1868. Folio, pp. 237, pis. xxx. 



